Elephant by: AMH

Fun Facts       Poem       References

Kingdom: Animalia

Characteristics that place it here

• Multicellular
• all heterotrophs
• ingest and digest in  an internal cavity
• lack the rigid walls
• cell organized into tissues
• tissues organized into organs
• reproduce sexually
• diploid

Phylum: Chordata

Characteristics that place it here

• defined as organisms that contain a notochord
• bilateral system
• segmented body
• three germ layers
• well developed coelom
• single, dorsal, hollow nerve cord
• tail projecting long
• pharyngeal pouches
• ventral heart with dorsal and ventral blood vessels
• closed blood system
• digestive system
• bony or cartilaginous endoskeleton

Class: Mammalia

Characteristics that place it here:

• Three middle ear bones
• hair
• production of mike mammary glands
• three ear bones (malleus, ilnus, and stapes)
• hair made of protein keratin
• vibissae sensory function
• color and pattern of hairs make camouflage
• teeth
• lower jaw
• diphyodonty

Order:  Proboscidea

Characteristics that place it here:

• Increase size
• earliest lacked trunk or tusks
• trunks- soft tissue that is not fossilized
• cheek teeth
• 6 check teeth
• skull
• lamdadal crest
• require huge amount of food
• long lives
• communicate

Family: Elepahntidae

Characteristics that place it here:

• Characterized as a mammal
• not a plant
• eats plants

Genius and Species: Elephas and Elephas maximus

Characteristics that place it here:

• Multicellular
• heterotrophs
• herbivore
• doesn't contain prokaryots

References 

Myers, Philip, 1994 "Kingdom Animalila"  http://www.animaldiversity.com                  

Unknown 1999 "Elephant trivia and facts"              http://www.funtrivia.com/Animals/Elephants.html

FUN FACTS

• Elephants can be pregnant for 24 months.   
• In Jurassic Park the roar of the T-Rex came from mixing the noises of a crocodile, a lion, a tiger and a baby elephant.   
• Elephants can't perform a standing jump. They don't have knees.
• Elephants are capable of swimming twenty miles a day. They use their trunks as natural snorkles.
• The elephant can smell water up to 3 miles away.   
• Elephants have been known to remain standing after they die

Poem: 

Elephants are kind

They are loving and special 

They are comforting 

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